No One's Invincible
by a.purple.pencil
Summary: Kid flash is abused. But it's his dad and he means well most of the time right? (This is a serious topic that happens in real life. If you or anyone you know experiences symptoms of abuse, please tell someone.) National domestic violence helpline: 0808 2000 247 24
1. The first time

Wally lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood and let himself heal. He felt the numerous gashes melt away as if they were never there. They might as well have been for all anyone knew. He felt bruises turn from black to yellow to back to the deathly pale hue of his normal skin colour .

He was lucky. Just before he had left mount justice, Megan had fed him a meal because she heard his stomach rumble loudly after a mission. At the time, he had been quite embarrassed, but now he was ever so grateful for the Martians never failing generosity and kindness, even if the sandwich had green fur sticking to its underside.

It was times like this that he wished that m'gann had asked why he was so hungry after only a short mission. He didn't really know the reason. He guessed he would just want to know whether she'd care.

Then again, he would have just shrugged and let the explanation be limited to 'I have a serious matabolism like he always did. And then he would have said something suggestive and flirty that the Martian probably wouldn't understand and then, he would have just sped off.

Same old KF.

But the real reason was stupid and had nothing to do with the team so there was no point in telling her anyway. The real reason why his stomach rumbled, why he had felt a little light headed all evening and why Robin looked at him curiously and asked if he was eating enough, was in fact because of the lack of food he had consumed that day.

The day before he had gotten his test results from school and had been dismayed to find a bright, bold, red C staring at him from the page mockingly.

A fucking C.

"A FUCKING C! THAT'S ALL YOU GOT? A FUCKING C?!"

Apparently his dad had the same reaction.

"WE RAISE YOU AND WE FEED YOU FOR FIFTEEN FUCKING YEARS AND ALL YOU GIVE AS THANKS IS A FUCKING C!"

"But d-dad I..."

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT COSTS TO FEED YOU, YOU FREAK?! TOO FUCKING MUCH! JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A FUCKING FREAK LIKE YOUR GODDAMNED FUCKING UNCLE !"

And Wally knew how much it cost to feed him, he knew how disgusting it was for him to eat like he did, he knew he was just a fucking freak and a waste of money. He really did. How could he not when his dad reminded him everyday. (His dad reminded him of it because he cared. Because he was worried that he wouldn't be able to feed him, right?)

His dad had never hit him. He had only reminded wally to do better even if he didn't have a very nice way of saying it. (Wally's dad cared right? Of course he did.)

And so he made a conscious decision to not eat as much as he usually did; to eat like a regular human-

To be normal, just in his eating habits so he didn't have to cause pain and strife in his family anymore.

So that's what he did;

He ate a normal amount of breakfast; one bowl of cereal instead of his usual three and a half. He ate a normal lunch; one tray of free benefit cafeteria food instead of going back for extras from the wide eyed dinner ladies. He ate one serving of his Mom's home made stew and his Dad actually smiled a little at the leftovers before finishing his meal. He was happy. He was normal for once just like his parents wanted.

That is, mostly normal.

A few minutes later his comm sounded. It was a mission from batman.

Just the perfect thing to shatter his momentary normalcy.

"Hey KF meet up at the cave. Bats has got a small mission for the team. I'm officially whelmed. He's babying us again." Came the unimpressed voice of Robin.

"Yea that totally sucks. I'll be there in a sec though. I'm kinda in the middle of something right now." He mumbled.

He wasn't really, but he didn't want to ruin his dad's unusual happy mood.

"Was that your team of freaks?"

Too late.

"Y-yes sir"

"Well go on then, you have to keep up appearances."

"T-thank you s-sir"

Curse his stutter.

And so he got up and left, rather shakily at that, suddenly feeling the void of not eating like he should. He ran upstairs to get his suit and then walked slowly downstairs remembering the rule about no powers in the house.

Shit.

He was going to be so late.

He got to the zeta beam slightly out of breath and dizzy but just shrugged it off. At least it was only going to be a small mission.

"Kid Flash B03" rang the voice that sounded strangely like Artemis.

"About time baby flash"

Speak of the devil.

"What took so long? Did you forget to change your nappy?"

"I'm never gonna live that off am I? The one time I ask for help with crime fighting in central you just had to meet trickster!"

"Lucky me."

"Y'know, the reason I was late is because I actually have a life outside of the team. Unlike you."

And he did have a life, just not as normal as his dad wanted it to be.

"Really! You could have fooled me baby flash. I thought you speedsters just sat inside and did nothing all day."

She replied with snark.

"It's kid flash Arty. it's like you have the memory of a goldfish. We keep having to remind you of things every 5 seconds. "

"Don't call me Arty kid baby and for your information I think baby suits you fine. And by the way, that's a myth. Goldfishes have a longer memory than five seconds. If you're gonna call me something, do the research first."

He gave her a glare and sped off to find Robin.

He eventually found him in the debriefing room messing with the cave's wires or whatever it seemed he was doing.

"Hey kf" He said without turning.

"How do you do that man? You're like a mini bat ninja!"

"No. It's just that when you enter a room you produce such an awful smell that it's hard not to notice you."

"Har har"

Robin then turned around dusting his hands off and looked at kf . He narrowed his eyes and looked wally up and down.

"Batman's gonna give us a mission soon so you might as well get ready sooner rather than later"

"Roger that" He said in mock seriousness. "Private speedster reporting for duty!"

With that, Wally saluted and sped off to his room to put on his goggles and his neon yellow suit. He immediately regretted speeding because his head began to spin as soon as he was actually suited up.

As he turned to walk out he saw Robin leaning across his doorframe.

"What is this, stalk a speedster day?" He chuckled.

"No" Robin dead-panned.

"Okay then... can I get past?"

"..."He narrowed his eyes.

"Robin, dude?"

"Wally, have you been eating enough?"

The silence that ensued was palpable and was drowning wally.

"...Yes..."

'Shit! I'm so bad at lying.' he panicked.

"Just wondering."

"Okay...?"

Had he got away with it?

"C'mon, Batman's gonna be here soon"

And Robin walked off leaving a thoroughly confused kid flash behind him.

"Well that was officially whelming"

And then wally followed after it the mission room.

"Hey wally!"greeted m'gann.

"Hey green cheeks, lookin as sweet as ever I see"

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

M'gann smiled at him politely.

"Shut up wally" said a monotone superboy walking over.

"WALLY" shouted an annoyed archer giving him a punch.

"What are you jealous arty?"He parried.

"W-wha... of w-what?"

"Of my obvious sexyness."He grinned widely.

"Sh-shut it baby flash." She stuttered.

"Best. Come back. Ever Arty."

"Don't. Call me Arty." She said punching him on the shoulder.

Everyone else just ignored what they thought was very obvious, crude flirting. Robin hid a smirk. He had bet Superboy that they would get together before new year's. The way things were going he was sure he'd get the ten dollars.

"Focus. Batman shall be arriving any minute now"

Trust aqua lad to diffuse an awkward situation perfectly.

But it wasn't everyday you got to get a mission from Batman in person.

Wally pouted and inwardly told himself to try really hard to annoy Batman. The annoying ninja. Like father like son.

He always felt oddly proud of himself if he was able to get emotion out of bats. Even the joker couldn't do it, and he was absolutely bananas.

Not that that had anything to do with annoying people.

He wasn't bananas was he?

Then again, for all he knew, he probably was.

What a funny thought though... to be bananas. He wondered what the joker thought when he hurt someone. He wondered what his dad thought when he hurt him with his words. No. He would not think about that now. Definitely not with M'gann in close range.

"are you okay Wally?" Said Superboy. "Your heart rate's increasing."

"Huh? Yeh I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Ooo that sounds painful."

"Shut up Arty"

"Batman 02" rang the Artemis voiced zeta beam from the other room.

Batman walked into the room.

"Team, as you know I have a mission for you."

He brought up the holographic screens.

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How they had managed to get such an easy mission mystified wally. After weeks and weeks and weeks of recon, and half of them failures, they had managed to get something simple.

Its probably because Batman was getting fed up of them messing up recon missions.

Well, really it was him messing up the recon missions. Same thing really.

He yawned, slumping back into his chair in the bioship. The flexible material binding him to the chair flexed to accommodate him.

There was a comfortable silence in the bioship. They were all tired after all the late nights they'd been suffering from recently.

Artemis was drifting off on the other side of the ship and superboy looked like he was trying to keep himself awake by having a staring contest with the wall.

Robin was in the front not even showing a hint of drowsiness but there was no way he couldn't be even if he was a mini bat.

M'gann seemed fine too. She looked content with just steering the ship but it was probably just the ship keeping her awake for the journey.

She docked them into the mountain and they dragged themselves off like zombies, yawning, stumbling and in some serious need of sleep or caffeine.

Probably caffeine for Robin.

And for the rest that were more human (or not human for the aliens in their midst) sleep was going to be sorely missed if it didn't occur soon.

It was then that a wave of nausea hit wally and he decided that it was probable time to give up his experiment.

He walked slowly and dizzily to the kitchen where a humming m'gann was making two hot chocolates. One for her and the other, presumably for Superboy.

To be honest wally had kinda known about their relationship before he was told and he was secretly happy for them, although he wouldn't tell anyone else that. Ever.

His charade of flirting with m'gann worked well for him. It relaxed him into the team dynamics and he meant it in more of a friendly way anyway. M'gann was like a sister to him now. He really wasn't interested in anything romantically related.

His stomach gave a humongous feral growl and he blushed.

M'gann turned around and looked, surprised, at wally. Her face softened when she saw who it was. Since the tornado incident they had all been a bit more wary of intruders.

"Oh hello wally. You must be hungry. I'll get you something to eat."

"Thanks megalicious! I see your cookings improving."he said, never to missing an opportunity to flirt.

"Yep!"she said smiling" when I first came here earth food was just really strange but I think I've got the hang of it now."

She flew a massive sandwich in front of him.

There you go wally. Eat up."

"Thanks greencheeks" he said yawning under his breath.

"I'm going to bed now" she said "you should get going soon too. You've got school tomorrow, right? Anyway, get some sleep."

She floated out the room with the two mugs and a huge yawn could be heard from down the corridor.

Wally smiled and scoffed down his sandwich and drank a glass of water.

He also did the dishes in way of thanks for the meal.

He suddenly felt soooo much better than before,

But tired. Very tired.

He dragged himself to the zetabeam and stepped out to his trashy street. There were glass bottles everywhere and the smell of cigarette smoke clung like a blanket. When he finally reached his house he could already hear the raised voices of his mum and dad. This was becoming a common occurrence:

Go on a mission,

Come back to his trashy, shitty house,

Listen to his parent's arguments,

Get shouted at by his dad (who was only shouting because he cared about his safety, right?)

Go up to his room and sleep (and not cry, he did NOT cry)

It was a routine that was becoming increasingly hard to break.

Only this time, it was slightly different. His fathers voice had a slight slurred tone to it and his mother seemed afraid, too afraid.

He could smell the alcohol and he suddenly felt an anxiety that dropped into the pit of his stomach like a heavy stone.

He gripped the door handle with more force than necessary,

And entered.

There was a sudden bang, and then,

Silence...

That suddenly scared wally a lot more than the shouting.

And maybe you can guess what happened next.

Or maybe you can't.

"Boy, is th't yuu!

He had a slight slur in his voice.

Alcohol.

Wally didn't respond.

"BOY!"

He froze

"WALLACE!"

"Yeh, dad it's me." He whimpered.

"C'mere, now, d'mit, NOW."

He walked slowly, carefully to the living room the only sound being his thudding footsteps and the occasional clink of class and the liquor inside them sloshing drunkenly.

Wally reached the doorway and noticed the empty bottles on the floor along with the cans. It was like a party had come and gone in his own house without him even noticing.

His heart beat in his ears and his blood rushed around his body trying to deny what he was seeing with his own eyes.

He rounded the doorway slowly and his eyes widened in fear.

Oh god no.

His mum,

His mother.

Was on the floor sobbing silently in his father's lap. There was a bruise on her eye and her cheek, her cheek was bleeding along with her lip. She was scared, pleading, crying. Scared. His mum shouldn't be scared of his father.

Sure he shouted a little but he had never hit her,

And that's when it dawned on him.

He hadn't hit her till now.

He was smoothing her hair down clumsily, clearly intoxicated and wally wondered why, why, was he doing that when it was him who hit her.

" 'ss y'rr falt y'know. Yuu ddid th's. Ss'yrr fult i h'd t' hit'r"

He wasn't making sense.

His words came out as a jumbled mess that wally didn't even try to understand.

Wally was too horrified to try anyway.

His mother was looking at him with pleading eyes and wally wasn't sure if she was telling him to run away or help her.

Suddenly Rudolph stood up placing his mother to the side like an object.

Wally was frozen to the spot.

He walked over sluggishly to wally and wally could smell the alcohol on his breath.

Wally was afraid.

Afraid of his own father.

Suddenly, Rudolph threw a punch at his stomach. Wally, winded, crumpled to the ground. His father kicked him and kicked him again and again and again till no part of his body was left out on the pain.

At this point he was crying and pleading for it to stop. The pain was too much.

Rudolph didn't listen.

The abuse went on and on and on untill wally was a barely recognisable pile of bloody skin and bones.

Then Rudolph left.

He could hear him dragging himself up the stairs to his bedroom.

His mum crawled over to the sobbing wally and gently hugged him and stroked his hair gingerly. She slowly uncurled him from his ball and soothed him whispering that it would be alright.

"MARY!"

Came a voice from upstairs.

"I'm sorry baby, so sorry. Be strong for me." His mother whispered.

Then she went upstairs to find Rudolph before he did something worse.

Wally lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood and let himself heal. He felt the numerous gashes melt away as if they were never there. They might as well have been for all anyone knew. He felt bruises turn from black to yellow to back to the deathly pale hue of his normal skin colour .

And he just lay there, sobbing.


	2. It's okay

**sorry it took so long to update. I've been on holiday in London recently and i haven't had WiFi and on top of that I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I'm amazed with the response I got. Thanks to those who reviewed! When i get that kind of notification it really lifts my spirits. Just to warn you, my update speed might be quite slow and my length of chapters will definitely differ but i intend to keep updating. Keep reviewing! It gives me fuel to write.**

The day after was a weekend. Wally found himself on the floor in the early hours of the morning, sore and stiff.

There was blood on the floor.

Wally sat himself up with a start causing sore muscles to scream in complaint. He winced.

There was no movement in the house. He looked up at the slowly ticking clock on the wall and saw only squiggles and lines. His mind was a mesh of confused thoughts and feelings and he was too distracted to let himself relax enough to figure out the time.

He let himself slump down to the floor again in defeat.

He was hungry. His rumbling belly could tell him that much but after yesterday he couldn't bring himself to eat from pure nausea.

He felt like he might throw up the nothing that was already in his stomach .

Slowly, slowly, because he knew he'd need the energy, he stepped up. He was sore but healed. Stiff from sleeping on the floor.

He went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. He knew if he didn't eat he would be in some serious trouble that would need an explanation from him to uncle Barry, and frankly he didn't have the heart to lie today or at all to his uncle.

All the food in the fridge gave him no appetite so he moved on the the freezer and found the leftovers from last night. It was a small portion but he really didn't feel up to much.

He spooned the pasta slowly into his mouth. His team would be so proud at how neatly he was eating. Then again, they wouldn't be proud at how skinny he had become. Or who knows, maybe they wouldn't care.

Because of his high matabolism, he realised, he was stick thin because of yesterday's 'experiment'. You could practically see his ribs, see his bones.

He felt like a Halloween skeleton, draped in oversized clothes that made him feel comical. The worst part of it was they were his clothes that had fit him perfectly for just under a year till now. He was ashamed of himself.

The pasta was finally finished but he felt an urge to puke. He could feel bile riding in the back of his throat but he suppressed the urge to throw up.

He really didn't have the energy to go to the cave today. Hopefully no one would notice as they didn't have a mission that day. Anyway, he could just say that he was dealing with some 'family business',which was technically true.

He just didn't have the energy, and besides all they would do was hang out and it's not like he would be missed either. He was sure he wouldn't be missed.

He wasn't sure his parents were up yet. He could see out the window without having to read the clock that it was early morning. He had to be quiet. His parents wouldn't be awake yet and he didn't want to wake them.

His dad would almost certainly be hung over and he didn't want his mum to fret over him and disturb her husband unintentionally.

His room was just up the stairs and past their room. If he was quiet they wouldn't hear. If he was quiet, he wouldn't be beat on again.

And as he tiptoed up the stairs and reached his room he realised how drastically his life had changed over the course of a day. It exhausted him to even think about it, so he didn't and instead focused himself on going to sleep. He had school tomorrow. He didn't want to let anything show and sleeping would be the best way to rid himself of the horro-... of what happened last night.

To be honest, he still wasn't sure that it actually happened and if it wasn't for his sore body and ...Stained... clothes, he wouldn't even have considered it as a possibility.

What could he do?

He couldn't tell anyone. It was between the family. No one else needed to know and besides, it had never happened before this. It probably wouldn't happen again. Who would believe him anyway. Rudolph acted like the perfect father in front of other people, not like he was a bad dad. He was just easy to anger.

Why had he gotten drunk in the first place?

Why would he ever drink?

He had a nagging suspicion it had something to do with him. It always seemed like his father's life revolved around Wally's faults and mistakes.

There were so many mistakes.


	3. Schools in

**sorry for taking such a long time to upload. I didn't expect so much homework to pile up and I'm the kind of person who procrastinates** ** _way_** **too much.**

 **And as well, the bomb attack in Manchester really shook me. I live about an hour away from where it happened and I have a few friends that went to the concert. I'm really sad to say that one of my friends was really hurt in the explosion and is consequently in a coma due to shrapnel emmbeded in her head. We have no idea whether she'll ever wake up and even if she does she'll have brain damage and never be the same. Its really sad to think someone would do that to anyone and the fact that there were** ** _children_** **there is even more disgusting that someone could do that. Sorry to lay that all on you but ive been in a tizz about it for a while and I just needed a rant. God bless to anyone who was effected by the bombing. Those injured or dead will forever be in my heart. R &R**

 **Thanks for all the lovely reviews. They make my day:**

 **Smile-I'mTheEndOfAllThatYouSee: I'll try to proof read my work but honestly, don't blame me too much. I'm a hopeless speller. And about the terminology, what can I say? I'm british at heart. I'm glad to know you think its good despite that. :D**

 **VeronicaChase: OMG! I'm continuing!**

 **Guest on chapter one: the update's here. I hope it's as interesting.**

 **Felicja: let me furfill your curiosity.**

 **Arithese: here's what happens next.**

 **sparklinglight99: same! It actually kind of worries me.**

 **Guest on chapter two: thanks and here you go!**

 **Disclaimer: I will probably never own anything exept my gargantuous dictionary in my brain where I get all my inspiration from.**

After a 'blissfull' weekend at home, Wally was almost relieved to be released into the cage that was school. Things were better there; not a lot better, but better.

He didn't really need friends there.

It meant he didn't need to keep himself happy-go-lucky all the time when what he felt sometimes was the opposite. It meant no one cared at school but also that he didn't worry anyone.

People shouldn't worry about things that don't matter.

Or people that don't matter.

There's no point in it.

There was the issue of bullying but wally just put up with it. It was never as bad as his dad's...the only word he could think of was, well, lessons.

On a good note, that morning, he got up fully healed.

He decided to make it a habit of not getting in his father's way on Saturdays so teachers wouldn't worry if they saw bruises. They would probably think it was bullies anyway.

After last night wally had a feeling that his dad wouldn't give up the new habit of getting drunk.

He went downstairs and was relieved to find his dad wasn't up yet.

His mom was in the kitchen making breakfast. She looked so happy and Wally began to think she was trying to fool herself.

In Wally's mind, she shouldn't have to live through his father being a dick. She was worth so much more.

"Wally, I made your packed lunch for you; everything!"

Wally's mom put a brown paper bag in his blue school rucksack.

Wally felt like almost crying for some reason but he swallowed the lump in his throat and smiled.

She chuckled sweetly when she saw him just standing there.

"Come on dear, I made you breakfast."

Wally sat at the table and grinned tiredly at his mom.

"Thanks mom, you're great."

Wally's mom looked at him a little longer before putting down the plate of bacon and eggs in front of of him.

"Wally?"

"Yes mom?"

She sat down opposite him and looked in his eyes.

"You're really skinny...I don't think you've been eating enough. I didn't see you come down for food at all yesterday and when I went up to check I couldn't wake you up. I thought you were dead before I checked your breathing. Do I...do I need to tell your uncle Barry?" She looked tearfully at wally and reached for his hand.

Wally looked down at the table.

"Wally, I'm just worried that's all."

"Y-yeah I know. There's nothing wrong. I promise."

"Okay...just tell me if..if there's something. I'm your mom. I want to help you."

"I will. Oh, I need to eat don't I..." He smiled sheepishly and gobbled down the eggs and bacon. He then ate four more plates. No more food experiments for him. He didn't want to worry his mom like that ever again.

Wally's mom moved back into the kitchen to presumably make his dad breakfast. Not like he deserved it or his lovely wife.

Wally slipped his bag onto his shoulders and smoothed out the creases in his flash t-shirt.

He decided today was going to be a good day. He would not let himself be a pessimist, after all, his father often just went through phases and who could be down with such an excellent mom.

His family life would end up fine, he knew it and besides it was time for school. He had to think about his education first and foremost.

After all, if he didn't get into a good university, his dad would be so disappointed.

Wally had arrived at school which was a five minute walk down the road from his house and was a shabby looking place that was mostly ignored by the local council and therefore ignored by anyone else but drug dealers, parents and their children.

To say it was a dodgy place would be the understatement of the year.

The bell rang and Wally went to his classroom where he sat in the back and tried to avoid eye contact by staring at his desk and putting his head in his hands.

Someone walked behind him and flicked his ear. He turned round to see a blond girl giggle and walk to the seat next to him; Allysa Walt was her name and she was notorious for being a bitch to everyone except her girls and her boyfriend.

She had actually tried to get him to be her boyfriend when he was new to the school and not known as a nerd and a slob. Apparently he was decently cute.

When he rejected her, she replaced him with a guy named Dan Selp, who was the class jockey and an all-round gorgeous guy, apparently to all the girls.

Since he rejected her, Allysa directed her bitchy tendencies towards Wally and basically tried everything she could to make his life a living hell.

So much for Highschool being the best years of your life.

Dan walked in behind Allysa and knocked Wally's desk so that all his textbooks fell on the floor. He smirked.

"Sorry about that Westie. I'll be more carefully next time." Dan drawled in his slow deep voice. He really wasn't sorry.

Wally sighed and picked his books up from the floor glancing from the corner of his eye, Dan watching him pick up his books.

As he was picking up his calculus book he noticed Allysa whispering something in Dan's ear and giggle softly. A wide smile spread across Dan's face and he nodded.

Wally stood and placed his heaps of books on his desk and suddenly felt Dan's at his back. Before he could turn around, he felt Dan grab his arm.

"Hey, freckle fuck, meet me in the bathrooms after lessons. If you don't, me and my boys will meet you out back, and you know you don't want that...do ya?" Dan whispered dangerously close to his ear. Wally felt goosebumps dance down his spine. He had been on the receiving end of many of the jockeys' gang ups.

Then Dan let go and walked to his seat. Wally could see Allysa smirking next to him. He could see the hand shaped mark on his arm throb red.

Just then the teacher walked in.

"Alright class. Settle down and take your seats please."

...TSK...

The rest of the lessons passed in a blur with science being the only highlight when he got his test scores back and discovered he got 100%- more than everyone in the class.

Everyone glared at him and Wally could hear whispers of nerd and geek around the class.

Oh the joys of highschool.

He supposed he was a nerd but having people spit it in your face as an insult didn't help with self esteem.

And on a day where he wanted the end to never come, time seemed to speed up extra fast.

As the final bell rang he could feel dread well up and an insurmountable barrier of fear built itself up in his stomach. He was not looking forward to after school.

 **sorry, I just had to put a cliffhanger. That and I dont really know what should happen next. Give me some inspiration in a review. What do you think should happen next? I might not write a new chapter unless I get some suggestions. :p**

 **JK, I will, but seriously, help me out here.**


	4. Scared

**I'm sorry. I have no excuse for not updating. My updates are always gonna be slow and my inspiration speed is like a snail. I'm just gonna say, I will never have a fixed update schedule. Never.**

 **But you know, I'm really freaked out. We had to do practice terrorist drills in school. I'm feeling really unsafe.**

He knew what was going to happen inside the boys bathrooms, but he went inside anyway.

His heart was beating a mile a minute, and that wasn't actually an overstatement. His heart was _actually_ beating a mile a minute.

Not that the boy in the bathroom knew that, or cared. Who would suspect little nerdy Wallace West to be Kid Flash. A hero. A fighter of evil.

No one. That's who.

Even if he told them, they'd probably just laugh.

When he first went inside, the lights were off and the room was pitch black except from the mirrors above the sinks that reflected Wally's pale, white, freckly face in the doorway. Then the lights flickered on and there was a faint hum of electricity from the ceiling.

Wally closed the door and came face to face with the person who turned the the lights on.

It was Dan.

He was smirking with an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He had the lighter in his hands and with a click, wally saw that he had turned it on.

"Oh Westie, you came. I thought I was gonna havta get my boys to chase ya down. Then you know what's good for ya, huh." He sounded so stupid it was laughable, but Wally didn't laugh. He just took a step back when Dan suddenly decided to grab his collar and spit his cigarette in his face.

Dan put the lighter in his back pocket and put his forehead against Wally's.

Dan's face was so close he could smell the rancid smoke on his breath and the tar in his lungs. It reminded him of his dad. It reminded him of what he was sure would come next.

It was then that Dan grabbed him by his hair and dragged him to the toilet while clamping his mouth shut. Wally tried as hard as he could to pry the hand away but, while he was fast, he wasn't strong. All he could do was make muffled sounds of anguish from beneath Dan's filthy hand.

Dan opened one of the stalls and brought the hand holding Wally's hair up. Wally could feel the hair pulling out of his scalp and tried to yelp, but Dan's hand was still over his mouth.

Dan was directly behind Wally and was breathing in his ear with what was sure to be a smirk on his face.

"So Westie, time to put you in your place. Up for carrot dunking?"

Wally's eyes widened as his head was pushed roughly into the dirty toilet water. Dan pushed his head hard.

He couldn't breathe but he was running out of air and Dan wasn't letting him back up no matter how much he struggled.

He accidentally breathed in and he could feel himself suffocating. Dying.

Why wouldn't Dan let him back up? What had he ever done to deserve this?

And suddenly the pressure was gone and he was let up. He coughed and chocked and hacked up filthy toilet water from his lungs.

"Bye bye Westie. Have a good night!"

And then Dan shut the stalls door and wally could hear him scraping a locker across the floor.  
Suddenly realising what he was about to do, Wally frantically tried to get out of the stall. But it was too late. The door was already blocked by the locker.

Wally heard the bathroom door shut. He was alone.

He was scared.

He was a coward.

He could have stopped Dan if he wanted to. I mean, he took down baddies even worse than Dan almost everyday. So why couldn't he lift a finger towards Dan?  
Or his dad.

It was like kid flash was an entirely different person from cowardly Wally West.

And then, when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the lights turned off and the bathroom elapsed into darkness.

And oh how he wished robin was here right now. Or any of the team. Even Roy, the sarcastic little biach who kept saying he WASN'T ON THE TEAM, when he so clearly was.

Even Roy. Maybe even Artemis. Probably not though. He wouldn't want her to see him shivering, wet haired and pathetic on the floor of one of the stalls of his crappy schools bathroom.

Oh how how he wished he could move schools but his dad decided a long time ago that they didn't have the money. And besides, he dreaded having to talk about anything with his dad. Wally realised that he hadn't seen his dad face to face since _that_ happened and he didn't plan to.

He avoided his dad like death now and he would keep it that way untill he moved out. No one needed to know because nothing was going on.

Wally sighed deeply and felt drips of toilet water run down his face from his hair and on to his shoulders. He shivered one last time and pulled himself up from the ground.

Once he stood up he felt a little dizzy and sat down on the toilet lid. It was then he realised it was probably about this time that he should be having dinner.

Oh god. He was already skinny enough from...  
Barry was surely going to notice something. And if not uncle Barry, Robin would notice because , if wally needed reminding, Rob was a freaking bat detective.

Oh the joys of having a ninja best friend.

Huffing, he sat on the toilet seat and wondered whether the toilet was flushed when his head was dunked in. Probably not best to think about that in a small confined space.

In a small confined space with no way out.

Oh god.

Oh shit.

Wally's breaths began to shallow and sharpen. The Walls seemed to tighten around him and contort to torment him. He gripped his hair harder and harder, feeling the roots pulling. He started to cry through fast, etched breaths. The world spun and he was panicking in a way that he knew came only with claustrophobia. The restricting feeling of being trapped.

He wanted out. Now.

He quickly stood and readied his shoulder. He then slammed into the door hard. The locker clanged and wally shoved the door again, this time using his super speed to propel himself. This time, it worked and the locker tumbled over and made a massive noise of metal against hard floor. The cubicle door swung open an wally tumbled out onto the floor.

He could finally breathe again.

But his shoulder was throbbing and the crash of the locker was really loud. No doubt the janitor was already on his way.  
He did not want to be in that awkward conversation.

Wally ran.  
And by ran, he really _ran._

The speedforce surrounding him, he let his relief out in a sigh.

He would never understand Dan so he just stopped thinking about it.

It was 5:00 and he really really hoped that his parents were at work still. One in particular would not be nice to run into today. Or ever.

Wally stopped running a mile from his house, figuring that the walk would be a nice slowing of pace and a way of procrastinating.

He really did live in a crappy neighborhood.

He finally reached his house and grabbed the handle. It was silent.


	5. Unfair

He grabbed the door handle until his knuckles turned white; then he opened the door.

It was silent.

The hall was empty and deserted. Unusual.

He turned the hall light on and put his school bag by the stairs. There were no lights on in the house as far as he could tell and he couldn't hear any sign of someone in the house.  
He was just being paranoid. His mom and dad were probably just on their way back home right now. Something like that.

Ugh...

This day was a disaster along with the rest of his whole life. Why did he have to fucking exist. The world would be better off without him. His dad had made that clear.

It felt like a deep black hole was beneath him, trying to swallow him up and then to cover the exit afterwards. He wanted to _do_ something but there was nothing to do to stop it.

He trudged upstairs and flopped unceremoniously on to the bed. He took out his phone from his pocket and raised it above his face.

There was a miss call from robin. Oops. He also texted.

ROBIN ...1 day ago...  
Hey dude where u at? Yd u miss coming to the cave today?

ROBIN ...today 5 hours ago...  
Wally?

ROBIN ...today 5 hours ago...  
ANSWER ME!

ROBIN ...today 4 hours ago...  
fine then. Whatever. I have to go on a mission with batman anyway. Sooo not whelmed Wally. :P

Wally sighed. He should probably text him to say he wasn't dead. He felt like he should be dead.

WALLY ...now...  
Sry I didn't answer your texts I was busy. There was a family issue I had to take care of. Don't ask.

He couldn't be bothered to put anything else. It would all be lies anyway. He felt his phone go off beside him.

ROBIN ...2 second ago...  
Okaaay then. I smell bullshit. But I won't force you to tell me my dear friend. I'll just eventually guilt it out if you for missing an awesome weekend of fun at the cave.

WALLY ...1 second ago...  
Hey I was there for one day. It wasn't that awesome.

ROBIN ...now...  
You'd be surprised at how awesome the second day was in comparison. Btw sry I gotta go. Batman calls. WHOOP the joy of training. And I will get it out if you kiddie flasher. Mark my words.

WALLY ...now...  
Kiddie flasher? You make me sound like a kid stripper. Ewwww. Anyway have a good daddy bat session. Byee.

Hufff. Forced happiness is hard when you feel like shit. Who coulda guessed?  
Wally lay completely back on the bed at the ceiling.  
There were glow in the dark stars on there that his dad had helped him stick on when Wally was 8- when he actually gave a shit about wally and his feelings.

But wally didn't really have the heart to take them down.

He suddenly heard the door open and close downstairs. He hoped to god it was his mom.

He heard walking and the creak of the stairs. He decided to pretend he was asleep.

He heard someone at the doorway with what seemed like heavy breath. It was clear it was his dad now.

He heard footsteps to his bed and then suddenly he was being pulled up by big beefy hands. His dad was obviously drunk...but he was crying?

"Wallace...walce...wlllhace..." He slurred "I'm so sorry...sorry...so sorry... Please forgive me...please"

And then he hugged wally. Wally was really confused. Should he be shoving him off or hugging back. How was this even happening?

He stood stiff against his father's shaky hug.

"I was drunkg... I am drunk. I wasn't in control I'm sorry I'm so sorry I didn't mean to I'm so sorry... I promise I won't do it again.."

And then Rudolph collapsed on the floor probably because of how much he'd drank. Fucking fucking ducks in a bed full of shit. This was...wally didn't even know what this was.

Wally was very confused.

It wasn't fair for his dad to say that he was getting better. He wasn't sure how long it will be until he could have another episode and then everything would go spiralling down the drain.

Wally looked at his dad's prone body on the floor, sighed and took his duvet and placed it over him.

He then walked to the living room and curled into himself on the couch. He was just fed up of this. He grabbed a blanket off the floor and bundled himself under it. Wally had no idea what to think anymore.

He had no idea what to do.

When his mom came home after work that evening she found him asleep on the couch face down with the the blanket resting on his chest.

She tucked the blanket up to his chin, smiled and trudged upstairs with heavily bagged eyes and a yawn building inside her chest; the results of overworking herself.

And when she got in bed she was too tired to wonder why her husband wasn't lying next to her.


	6. Was it fake?

When Wally woke he was on the sofa and his neck was sore and stiff. His baby blue blanket was wrapped around his shoulders and he folded it up and placed it over the back of the sofa.

School again today. Woohoo.

He didn't want to see whether his dad was out of his room yet. He wished that after what his dad promised he would just wake up and be _normal_ again, even if it meant him shouting at Wally's mistakes. Better that than crying and being drunk and coming home smelling of booze and loopy after hanging in the pub with his new 'mates'.

But you can't have everything in life.

Wally's stomach grumbled like an earthquake and he ran over to the kitchen. He got out a bowl and went to get cerial but then he noticed they didn't have any. Usually his dad went shopping. Not anymore.

He looked at the time- 6:13. He had time if he ran.

Wally put his bowl away and walked to the front door. He prepared himself, and then ran to the grocery store to buy groceries with the little change he had in his pocket.

He managed to buy milk and when he ran home it was 6:23 and his mom was up.

He put the milk onto the countertop. His mom had her back to him. She looked exhausted.

"Hey mom. I got some milk if you want some?"

She turned at the sound of his voice.

"Oh Wally. Hello darling. I'm okay thanks. I'm not very hungry for cerial. I think I'll just make myself a smoothie from leftover fruit. Would you like some?"

"Nah, I prefer cerial thanks."

Wally walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. She was so much smaller than him now.

"Don't overwork yourself mom. You're doing amazing."

She squeezed his hand affectionately. "I won't Wally."

He smiled at her and got some cerial. He then scoffed it into his mouth in about 3 seconds, and it was gone.

He realised he needed to get his phone from his room. Hopefully his dad was still asleep.

And yes, he was.

Wally leaned over his dad's prone form and grabbed his phone. Just as he was about to straighten, his dad suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Afraid, wally looked at his dad's face which was stupid from sleep and could hear his heart thumping in his chest like a drum.

Rudolph spoke;  
." Boy-..."

And then wally yanked his wrist out of Rudolph's grasp and ran and didn't stop untill he'd picked up his backpack and gotten to school.

His heart was still pounding like a drum.

He took slow breaths and checked his phone.

There were about 9 notifications from robin.

Oh yeah.

After all that happened after school he forgot he was supposed to go the the cave. He hoped Rob hadn't asked uncle Barry anything otherwise he was due for an uncle talk and he wasn't really in the right headspace for that.

ROBIN... yesterday 4:12...  
Heeeey are u late?

ROBIN... yesterday 4:15...  
Are u not coming again? Cmon man. So not whelmed right now.

ROBIN... yesterday 4:20...  
You're missing an amazing mission. We're saving some hostages and hot babes too (I looked on the surveillance). Too bad joker and Harley are there too but, eh. You can't have everything.

ROBIN... yesterday 4:21...  
Nothing?

ROBIN... yesterday 4:25...  
Come on, just let me know.

ROBIN... yesterday 4:39...  
WALLLYY

ROBIN... yesterday 4:40...  
I'm starting to think something's wrong.

ROBIN... yesterday 4:41...  
Do I need to tell your uncle?

ROBIN... yesterday 4:43...  
You really don't seem yourself at the moment.

Oh gosh. Well at least Robin cared.

WALLY... Now 7:23...  
Omg I'm sorry dude. I didn't have my phone. I was grounded by my dad for sneaking out of school and he took my phone.

If anything, he wished that was true if it would mean his dad was back to normal and not getting drunk every night like he did now.

He slipped his phone into his bag and walked inside. He was doing a lot better today. He almost felt happy and he had enough sleep for once at least.  
He thought he could feel someone watching him but he shrugged it off and walked to class.

Up in the vents:

"See, he's fine you paranoid ninja. Can we go back to school now or what?"

"Shhh Artemis. He might hear us. And anyway, he might look fine but I know something's up."

"Oookay, if you say so. But I'm not missing cave time for this."

Robins phone dinged.

"Heard of silent mode robin. I thought we were stealthing."

"It's from Wally. He said he was grounded for sneaking out of school."

"That...doesn't really sound like Wally. Isn't he a super good geeky nerd at school?"

"Yeah. Now do you see what i mean?"

Artemis huffed. "Yeah, yeah. So what's the plan now ninja bat?"

"We follow him into class."


	7. Another day

In class:

Wally walked into his class and got all his stuff out. He realised he hadn't done any of his homework. Shiiittt. He was so screwed.

He sat down and started to speed write all his homework. Eh, he wouldn't call it cheating, just a convenient skill.

He heard someone plop into the seat next to him and as he finished his final sentence he looked over. His friend (practically his only one at school) Sam was looking at him smirking. His brown hair was short and crazy messy, like he'd be running.

"Tut tut Westie. Doing homework in class, shame on you."

"Oh shut up Sam. Not like you can say much. You don't even do your homework half the time."

he laughed  
"Yeah, yeah. At least I get good grades. I can work all the bad favour off with good behaviour."

"Not with Mrs Lesti you can't. She hates you"

"I didn't hand in my homework ONE time, and she gave me an hour detention and called me pathetic in front of the whole class. No me gusta nada señora lesti."

Wally snorted into his hand.  
"She'd be proud of you for using Spanish from her lesson to insult her."

"Pfft whatever."

The teacher walked into class and gave a disapproving look at all the noise.

"Alright class. Shut up and sit at your desks you chatterbugs. Thank you."

There was a sudden clang from the vents on the ceiling. Everyone in class looked up. There was a muffled "shhiitt!" And everyone laughed in confusion.

The teacher was bewildered.  
"Hello, hello? Who's up there? I can call the principal."

There was only silence from the vents.

"Class I'm going to get the janitor. Wait here."

She shuffled out of class to presumably find the janitor and maybe call the principal too.

Wally turned to Sam.  
"Weeiirrddd."

"Yeah. I wonder who would be crazy enough to go into the vents."  
He said ripping a piece of paper our of her book and throwing it at Dan's head.

It missed and fell in the bin instead.

He chocked and laughed.  
"I..erm...meant to do that."

Wally looked at him.  
"Suurree you did. Oh. By the way, where were you yesterday? I waited all lesson for you to burst in late and save me but you never did."

"Oh, I...erm, had a talk with my mom about...me...erm...being a boy and I started crying and she started crying and... It was great Wally. She accepted me. She said she'll call me Sam from now on."

"That's so great! So are you going to tell the class to call you by your correct pronouns?"

"I...I don't know. I hadn't thought about that but...okay yeah I am. You know what, I'll do it now."

Sam stood up and walked to the front of the class. The room went quiet. Sam spoke:

"I am a boy. Not a girl. Not Wally's girlfriend. Not anybody's girlfriend. I am a boy. From now on please refer to me as he and him, and don't you even fucking dare call me Samantha. I am Sam."

A boy in the front whistled and clapped and soon everyone in the room joined in. Sam beamed.

He then walked over to his seat and gave Wally the widest grin in the world.

The teacher walked in with the most confused look on her face.

"No one was in the vents" she muttered.

"Well okay class, time for register. Stir down. _Sit down_. SHUT UP!... thank you.  
Allysa"

"Yes miss"

"Brandon"

"Yessss misss"

"No snake noises please Brandon.  
Catherine"

"Yes miss"

"Dan"

"Yeh miss"

"Elena. Elena? Not in.  
Samantha"

Some girl from the front put her hand up.  
"He wants to be called Sam miss."

"Oh..erm...I see. I'm very sorry. Sam?"

"Yes miss"  
If it was even possible, Sam smiled even more.

"Wally"

"Yes miss"

"Right. Okay, today's lesson is about j..."

There was another bang from the vents.

"Just...ignore it. Anyway. As I was saying..."

In the vents:

"You idiot! Stop doing that! You're gonna get us found out."

"Well Artemis, it's your feet that you're sticking in my face. It's not my fault that every time I try to get them out of the way they bang the vent!"

"Well who's idea was this anyway! If anything you should be mad at yourself for asking me."

"Anyway, that's not the point. Lunch starts in 5 minutes and Wally's not done anything suspicious except for his weird lack of any flirting and we're still stuck in a cramped vent. Should we just go?"

"Yeah, I think I've seen enough of 'the wall man' in his natural territory."

In class:

The bell rung and everyone started packing up. Wally was about to leave when he heard bangs in the vents like they were traveling away.

"So weird. Maybe there's a bird stuck in there or something." He muttered and left.

Outside wally looked around for Sam and saw him heading towards him.

"Hey wall man, I've got to go. I'm going to the doctors about... Erm ...hormone stuff. I still can't believe this is happening. Thanks Wally for always being there for me."

He held his hand up for a high five.

"See ya man!" Wally shouted as Sam walked off.

Wally's phone suddenly went off. He looked and saw his mom had texted him.

MOM...now 11:24...  
Wally. Don't come home. Please stay at your friend Robins tonight. Please.

Wally's heart stopped. What the hell happened.

Not caring whether there were rules against leaving school, Wally ran home as fast as he could without using his speed.

When he got there, everything seemed normal.

He rushed to the door and threw it open without a pause. The hallway was abandoned. So were the stairs. It was quiet.

It was so quiet.

Wally closed the door behind him softly. He crept softly to the living room and opened the door.

"Mom!"


	8. Very gone

**A/N: I'm so sorry**

She wasn't there.

The living room was empty. Wally looked around then closed the door and walked into the kitchen.

She wasn't there either.

He ran upstairs to the bedroom as fast as he could; still, no one was home. The house was empty.

Why would his mom tell him not to come home if she wasn't even in?

And what was he going to do now? He just skipped school and there was no way he was going back now.

Wally looked at the text again. It was definitely there. What the heck was going on? Then again, when he looked at it, it was actually from about 3 hours ago.

3 hours.

What happened...oh god what could have happened?

He checked in the living room again. There was nothing... NOTHING...to show that anyone had been there.

And then he heard the door open. Wally felt panic rise up inside him.  
He had to hide quickly.

His couch had a gap underneath he was just small enough to fit inside, so as the heavy footsteps got closer and closer to the living room, he quickly slid himself under.

He could only see the door. Nothing else except the floor and the couch above him if he looked up. And suddenly, the door creaked open and wally stared wide eyed at the dirty, muddy builders boots that made their way over to his hiding place.

Oh god, did they see him? Did they know he was there?

But no, at a second glance, the footsteps were slow and methodical and not rushing to catch him.

And at a third glance, he suddenly noticed, they were his dad's shoes.

Yeah, it was a good thing he hid.

But he was still going towards the couch. Was he going to sit on it!

No!

Too late. Wally had to resist calling out in pain. All the air had been squished out of him by his dad's heavy body.

Once he started to be able to breathe again, he looked to the side to see his dad's legs.  
They were shaking.

What?

Was he drunk?  
One sniff and he could tell the answer. Yes his dad was so very drunk and sobbing. Rudolph West, a man's man, who valued manlyness, was crying.

"Why!" the man cried "why Mary, why did you have to do that?"

And then, just as suddenly as he came, Rudolph West left leaving behind the faint smell of beer and blood.

Wally waited for around 15 minutes alone, paranoid and in the dark before he had the courage to crawl out from under the faded couch.

He then went outside to the garden. He knew what he would find.

There, in the corner of the yard, was a rectangular patch of dark red earth. On that mound was a crude headstone, as if the person had just placed a rock they had found lying around.

On that rock, etched in with what could have been a knife, was a name:

Mary West

It was then, with a sinking pained feeling in his chest, that Wally sank to his knees on the floor and trembled.

Tears ran from his face and down his cheeks as he wailed and screamed and screeched and curled into himself even more.

How? How could he have let this happen to her?

And what was worst of all, was that his Mom had always had faith that one day Rudolph would change. That one day, he would overcome his faults and they could be happy.

It was her absolute faith and love in him that was her downfall.

But Wally wasn't mad at her. No.  
He could never be mad at her. She always did what she thought was right and was always kind and caring to everyone, no matter who they were.

No.

He was mad at his dad. He could never forget or forgive what he had just done. He had been willing to believe, just a little, that his father could get better, and then life just threw it in his face just as if to say-

"how could you ever believe your life could become in any way good?"

And now, he wasn't upset, he was angry. So angry.

He stood.

He wiped his tears.

He climbed the stairs to his dad's room and opened the door.

His dad was on the bed, a bottle of beer in his hand and red puffy eyes that rivaled Wally's. But Wally had no sympathy for the man. Never again would he even come close to having sympathy for him.

At this moment he only felt scorching anger.

"How could you gave done that to her!" Wally screamed, watching with satisfaction the guilt and uglyness rear up in his father's eyes."Your own wife! She loved you! She loved you so much! YOU BASTARD! SHE WANTED YOU TO GET BETTER!"

And it was at that moment Rudolph West snapped completely.

"NO! YOU MADE HER DO THIS YOU SON OF A BITCH! YOU AND YOUR BASTARD WAYS! YOU MADE HER HATE ME!" Spit flew from Rudolph's mouth as he screamed.

Wally stepped back, fear recurring in his eyes. He didn't know what Rudolph would do. He was unstable, a fucking wild card with power over him like a sledgehammer hitting bone and braking it.

But what could he do?

His father was stepping towards him and Wally was realising how much danger he was actually in.

This bastard KILLED his mother.

What would he do to him? The same?

Rudolph grabbed Wally's arm and wally didn't respond. He just stared and cowered at the murderer in front of him.

His dad dragged him after him as he stormed out the bedroom and to the stairs.

He took hold of Wally by the waist and wally struggled in vain.

It was at that moment that Rudolph threw Wally down the stairs.

There was a tumble and a crack and a bang as Wally fell,  
and then stillness.


	9. A bad feeling

Wally woke to the smell of disinfectant and the sound of someone conversing in quiet tones.

He couldn't open his eyes; they felt like lead and his whole being felt numb. He felt as if he wasn't even connected to his body.

But then his head started to throb painfully and he could feel his heart beat inside his head. It was almost more than he could bear.

Whimpering, Wally reached out and he felt a warm hand enclose his and whisper softly to him. And it felt familiar; rough and steady in a way that distracted him from the pain.

Another quiet murmur that he couldn't quite grasp the specifics of, and the throbbing soothed. A hand moved itself to his forehead and stroked softly.

"Sleep now son."

...

"I mean if he was normal, he'd be in a coma right? He must of had one hell of a bad fall."

"Yeah, well... Oh hey I think he's waking up! Wally!"

Wally's eyes remained closed as he groaned and tried to move himself.

Which he failed at. Moving only made his head fuzzy with pain. Instead he felt someone take his hand and as he slowly opened his eyes he winced at the too bright light.

Someone helped him sit up against some pillows and a voice, "hey," Robin's, grounded him back to reality.

"How are you feeling?" Robin asked, hand protectively encircling Wally's arm.

Wally stared blankly at the blank white eyes of Robin's mask for a second.

Licking his lips slightly he softly muttered he was fine.

Robin's gaze pierced him so he looked away. He saw Artemis pretending not to stare on a chair a little ways away. He said hey.

"Hi," she said, "I'm glad... I'm glad you're all right." She looked down slightly and fidgeted.

"What happened?"

And at this they both looked at him attentively. Preparing for something?

Wally swallowed and spoke. "I fell down the stairs. Yeah, ha, yeah it really hurt actually."

Robin looked dubious but Artemis took this as the okay to tease him.

"Fell down the stairs, huh. Didn't know you were that clumsy lightning feet."

"Yeah, yeah." Wally laughed.

There was an awkward silence. Wally could feel Robin's eyes deciphering him.

Robin spoke, suddenly breaking the stiff atmosphere. "Are you sure wally? You're quite hurt for just falling down the stairs."

Wally didn't answer.

Artemis's chair creaked as she went to stand. "Erm," she said sensing the situation "I'm just going to go get something...er...from the kitchen. Yeah..."

As she left, Robin took Wally's hand and squeezed.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Wally sighed, "I know, there's nothing to worry about. I'm just a little tired. Promise."

Robin still didn't look convinced, but "Okay." He said.

...

After an hour or so, Wally was able to stand without getting dizzy and the first thing he did was get some real food into him. Something not from an IV drip. The sooner he healed the sooner he was getting out of there.

Wally really hated being in medical.

On the upside, a few minutes after Robin had left, Flash had come in to check up on him and he found out that Rudolph had been at the mountain.

Flash was under the impression that he had taken a bad fall down the stairs (which wasn't necessarily a lie, just the specifics were unclear) and Rudolph, like the compassionate father he was, had lovingly taken him to the cave because he was so worried. It made Wally's blood boil.

His skin prickled at the mention of his dad. He didn't want to think about what had happened that night. In brief flashes of panic he remembered his mum. She was dead. He knew that without a doubt, but with no evidence to back it up, there was no way he could say anything about it. But despite his pessimism, he secretly hoped that she might be okay. I mean he never saw a body, right? He was only guessing?

And then the sudden thought of actually seeing his mum lifeless on the floor made him gag and banish the thought from his mind.

He was mostly healed up by now and he was just awaiting official dismissal from Red Tornado.

There was no way he was going back to live with his dad. No way in hell. But what else could he do? He couldn't, wouldn't, tell anyone about his dad's issues. They wouldn't believe him. But besides that, the thought of him addmiting he was weak and swayed by the powers of his father's violence, when he was a superhero and meant to be so powerful, that was something he just couldn't do.

He was so weak and it made Wally feel so powerless.

The flash sped around the corner and said quietly "Hey there Wal man! Your dad should be here to pick you up in about 5 minutes, okay?"

Wally swallowed dryly and tried not to let the panic on to his face. "Yeah, okay..."

Flash gave him a little concerned look but then must have decided he needed space, because then he gave a small smile, patted his shoulder and ran off.

The flash's constant mothering while he was there made Wally smile, but it was only a small relief to the ball of squirming nerves that was festering in his stomach.

A couple of minutes later, the flash was authorising Rudolph's re-entry into the mountain.

Wally tried not to look uncomfortable or scared.

Rudolph stepped out from the zeta and moved towards wally. He stiffened as Rudolph embraced him. It all felt so fake.

"Ready to go home son? No more getting hurt on the stairs you hear," He said giving wally a wide grin.

"Oh...um...yeah." wally muttered trying not to sound tense.

Flash frowned for a second, "Where's Mary Rudy? I thought she would be here since Wally got hurt and all. Is she ill?"

At this, Rudolph's features morphed into something of complete concern. Wally felt sick.

"Barry, I have no idea! She didn't come home last night. I'm at the end of my wits! What with Wally getting hurt I had no time tobsearch or call her more than a few times. I'm planning on calling the police. I may be overacting and she might just be at a friend's house but I have a really bad feeling." Almost crying, Rudolph seemed to be the epitome of worry.

He was completely in denial about everything.

"Rudy, why didn't you telly me this before?" The flash fretted, "I could have helped! Tell the police as soon as you get home and I'll be on the lookout for her, don't worry!"

At this, Rudy nodded, grabbed Wally's arm and stepped into the zeta.

Wally began to get a very bad feeling about the whole situation.


	10. Ominous

The car journey home was silent and awqward. The mood in the air was undecipherable but it was uncomfortable all the same. Wally sat in the back and Rudolph in the front. He didn't want to be close to his dad if he didn't have to be.

As the car was turning into the house's driveway Wally looked at Rudolph's face. It seemed serene. The hole in Wally's gut deepened.

He got out of the car quickly but something about the mood told him that he shouldn't just rush into the house. The front door looked like it had been thrown off its hinges anyway.

Rudolph slammed the car door and Wally jumped out of his skin.

"Go to your room and don't come out unless I say. Got it boy?" Said Rudolph, strangely calm.

"Y-yes sir" Wally whimpered, hating how weak he sounded. All the fight from the last time he saw his dad had gone out of him. He didn't want to get hurt again. Not ever by _him_. Never again.

Wally walked slowly into the house, Rudolph only one step behind him, a heavy presence at his back. He walked up the stairs to his room and sat on the bed. Everything was just how he'd left it. He saw Rudolph at the door one last time before he closed it and Wally heard a click of the lock.

He was locked in.

Why? What had Wally done to deserve this? What was Rudolph going to achieve by locking him up? Was he going to starve him? Keep him as a personal punching bag? What?

In a surge of panic Wally checked his windows. Those too were locked. Wally yanked at them anyway in some small hope it might be wrong. When he gave up he kicked at the door. When his foot was throbbing too much for that he punched the wall and made a satisfying hole in the drywall.

It just wasn't fair.

He heard footsteps. Wally positioned himself by the door in the hoped he might be able to slip out.

The door opened a crack - and then a fist came flying at Wally's stomach. Winded, Wally curled up into himself on the floor, wheezing.

"Shut the fuck up boy and stop ruining my house," Rudolph had a crazed look in his tired bloodshot eyes.

"You're going to stay in here for a little while a calm yourself down do you understand? And then we're going to have a little talk." He smiled down at Wally pleasantly. Then he walked over and shut all of Wally's blinds.

He then crouched besides Wally and stroked his hair. Wally flinched and froze. Rudolph then took his phone from his jeans pocket and left. The door was locked oh his way out.

Wally was all alone with no no way of getting help and a sure beating if he tried to signal at people through the windows, if not the threat of death. His dad was acting, dangerous.

Wally looked down at his hands and saw that he was shaking like a leaf. His foot throbbed painfully from his self injury and his lungs still felt tight and his stomach sore.

Wally was done. Just done.

There was nothing he could do but listen to the pacing that was going on downstairs and not cry.  
Definitely not cry.  
He was _not_ crying.

He couldn't even text Robin. He couldn't even get help.

Wally fell asleep crying, curled up in a ball by his door and didn't dream of anything.


	11. Watching

It was quiet in Wally's room now.

Except for the rush of the cars from the road outside and the ticking of the flash themed clock on his wall, there was nothing. Wally was alone and afraid.

Rudolph had left him some hours ago. Wally had woken up not long after because of a nightmare. In it, his mother's face taunted him. She whispered in his ear saying it was his fault, why wasn't he home in time?

When he woke, it was in a cold sweat.

From behind the closed blinds there was only darkness. Wally sighed.

He stood from where he had been curled against the wall and felt the achyness of his limbs. His stomach still felt tight from where he'd been punched and his hair felt slimy from the touch of that monster.

Unsurprisingly, Wally felt completely defeated. The overwhelming urge to cry made his nose sting, but Wally had promised himself that he was going to be strong.

Even so, when Wally picked up his duvet, he wrapped himself into a blanket cocoon and lay on his bed so that the whole of his body was underneath. He was so done. Everything was spiraling - his dad most of all.

He didn't ask for this.

He didn't ask for a mess of a father.

He didn't ask for his mom to be dead!

He missed his mom. She couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. But that homemade grave in the back yard told another tale. But wait. That night was all fuzzy, maybe he imagined it! Yeah that's right. His father could be telling the truth! She might actually be missing!

Wally shot up with a start and peeked slyly through his blinds. Surprised, Wally saw his father outside. With a heavy feeling in his heart and all hopes crushed, Wally saw the grave was still there. The headstone was still small and crude and the earth still looked recently disturbed. Rudolph was kneeling on the soft earth, letting his trousers get dirty.

Wally had only seen him so vulnerable drunk. He looked very sober. In fact for the whole day he'd been surprisingly lucid. As Wally stared down at his father in the dark yard, he felt a deep sense of dread.

Suddenly, Rudolph stood. He stayed rooted before the grave for a few seconds, clenching his fists, before he descended upon it. He took the stone in his great beefy hands, hardly laboured by its small weight, before he walked away with it. Wally didn't see where he went other than away and so he simply stared at the rectangle of bare earth that was left.

Rudolph returned, strangely with planks of wood. In the low light Wally could just make out a toolbox in his hand.

Now thoroughly confused, Wally looked around the room for his old binoculars that he'd gotten as a birthday present a few years ago. The irony that they had been given to him by Rudolph didn't escape him.

Now Wally looked closer with them at his father.

By now he had laid everything down on the floor and seemed to be making a large cube out of the planks. It took him at least 20 minutes (in which every second was used by Wally to again question his father's flimsy sanity) and the end result was an almost perfect square frame of wood that was then placed on top of Wally's mom's final resting place. It completely hid the grave shadow. It looked like nothing had ever happened there.

Wally's father was a builder, and unfortunately, he was good at what he did.

It still didn't explain what it was going to be used for. Wally's confusion peaked when he spotted Rudolph dragging what looked like a sack over to his construction. By this time, the light of the sun had almost completely faded and the moon was already visible in the heavy black sky.

Wally's father seemed to hesitate for a second, before he opened the sack and poured what seemed to be earth into the wooden frame. Realization was dawning on Wally.

As Rudolph placed seeds into the dirt and took a full watering can and tipped it over them, Wally knew exactly what he was doing.

He was replacing his mother's fucking grave with a flower bed! The fucking nerve!

Wally threw the binoculars across the room in complete anger, seeing red. He watched as they shattered on the wall and fell to the floor with a bang and clatter. With a sudden realization with how much noise he just made, Wally quickly looked out the window in panic.

Rudolph was staring at his window in complete alertness. Wally's heart beat so fast that he felt like he was going to explode.

But then, as soon as he thought he might be caught, his father relaxed, probably already attributing the noise to the rough neighborhood they lived in. There were often noises of things breaking at night. That was the risk in living in such a place.

Rudolph's work seemed to be done and so he walked calmly inside, the only evidence of his time outside being a new flower bed that was hiding something very terrible.

When Wally didn't hear anyone come to his room and after waiting for a while, he let himself breathe. Anxiety coiled in his throat and stomach. Rudolph was never going to be caught.

Wally was the only innocent one who knew where his mom was. The only one who knew that in his garden his mom was decaying. But who could he possibly tell? Who the hell would believe him?

No one knew about Rudolph's alcoholism except Mary West and Wally West, and they had made sure to keep it that way. It was family business. So therefore, if he told anyone that caring, family man, loving husband Rudolph West killed his wife in a drunken rage, who would believe him?

Wally was stuck. There was no way that his father was going to let him out of his sight now, especially since he was supposed to be recovering. Since his mom had be reported as a missing person surely police would have to search the house? But how would he tell any of them? Rudolph would make sure he was on his best behaviour and supervised at all times. There was no way.

Wally was stuck.

Possibilities swirled around Wally's head all night, but when morning came, the only answers that he received was that he was tired and locked in his room with no way out.


	12. New Rules

As the sun shone through the cracks in Wally's blinds, his tired, achy eyes looked at the clock on his wall. It was 7:46. School was in a few hours. He wondered whether he'd be going.

Actually now that he thought about it, what was to stop Rudolph from killing Wally? He'd already killed his wife! Who knew what he'd do next.

Wally began to feel very anxious.

At that moment, the lock to Wally's bedroom clicked. Wally quickly scooted back as far as he could against the wall and covered himself in his blanket like a shield.

The door cautiously opened with a slight creak.

Rudolph hovered by the door anxiously. The bags under his eyes were as large as his sons. Wally was confused at this. Why did he look so affected? It was his fault! Anger began to build up inside of Wally.

Even with his shaken look, Rudolph still seemed intimidating. He had always been large and muscular, but to Wally, right now he seemed like an impassible giant. He had a look in his bloodshot eyes that seemed determined. Wally could still see the dirt on his father's hands.

Wally's anger replaced itself with dread.

"Wallace," he said with a deep sigh. "I'm going to sit down on your bed and talk. You're not going to interrupt. Nod if you agree."

Wally nodded cautiously.

Rudolph sat himself down on Wally's bed, not so close that Wally felt overly threatened, not too far that he didn't feel threatened at all. He sighed again, deeply.

"I'm going to tell you what happened to your mother. B-because I have to tell someone," Rudolph looked unsure, but kept going anyway, "You were at school. I'd been drinking again. By god I wish I hadn't. I can't help it Wally, I can't!" His hands trembled on his lap and he looked at Wally pleadingly. Wally just felt unnerved. "Your mother had just come home from work. I was home because I was fired the day before. She was concerned."

"She kept telling me that the drink was bad but I wouldn't listen! She was fretting and then suddenly I just couldn't stand it," a tear slipped from his eye and he hastily wiped it away. Wally felt deeply uncomfortable now.

Rudolph became deeply calm and emotionless. Almost as if he was dissociating himself from the event. "It was stupid," he whispered. "There was a hammer on the table from where I'd been fixing something that morning. I grabbed it. She went quiet after that. She was scared." Wally felt a lump grow in his throat. "She begged me not to but that just made me angrier. I hit her. In the head. She was dead in a second. That didn't even sober me up! What kind of monster am I?" Rudolph looked disturbedly at the ground. Wally stared in abject horror at his father. The man he used to love. The man who killed his mother.

"I buried her in the garden."

At this he turned to Wally and stared at him intensely. Wally couldn't hold his gaze and stared at his hands in fright.

Rudolph grabbed Wally's chin, an expression of pure fear on his face. "No one can know Wallace. You understand? No one. Not your shitty little superhero friends. Not your freaky fucking uncle Barry. Not even the internet or a stray fucking dog. You understand?" Wally's jaw felt bruised as Rudolph released it but he nodded all the same.

"Good. Very good. So you get it. Of course you do."

Wally stared in terror at the monster of a man his father had become.

"So I'm going to lay out some rules." Rudolf said raising his voice.

"You're going to go to school every day and coming straight back home. You say nothing at school. No one will believe you and I know you don't have any friends there. That Samantha? She's been transferred by her mother for some reason or another. She texted you this morning. Regarding your phone, I give it to you during the day, I get it back when you come home. I check your messages, I know where you are because I have a tracking app on it. I'll know if you uninstall it, it sends me a message. Got it so far?"

Wally nodded, dread building every new rule his father spoke.

"That superhero team of yours? I want you to quit it. Tell them you have to focus on school work because you're studying for some big exams, whatever you want. Make it convincing. Tell them it just got too stressful, that you need to focus on finding your mother, whatever. You go there only tonight. You do not tell them anything. You quit. I want you to do all these things for me Wallace. You will do them. I am not being taken to prison for a-a stupid mistake. I regret it yes but I am not going to prison you hear me boy? So you listen to me and you listen good. We're going to get through this but only if you listen to me."

Wally swallowed thickly and nodded.

Rudolph smiled, lips stretching out till they looked like thin strips of blood. "That's a good boy. Now you get ready for school. Everything is going to be okay."

With that, Rudolph stood and exited. He didn't lock the door after him.

Wally didn't know what to do. His situation was far worse than he thought it was. His father basically just threatened him! He was making him cut all his friends off. He was going to be trapped forever with his psychopath of a father until he got drunk one day and killed him too.

Wally went through the motions of getting dressed for school methodically and calmly. He packed his school bag and then sat on his bed.

At least this meant his father still cared about him right? He wasn't just killing him too. Or maybe, Wally realized, Rudolph West was just a coward.


End file.
